How could I make a training plan for myself? Years off running

I would recommend taking a look at Jack Daniel's Running Formula if you haven't already. It is very helpful and widely used. You can read the description of the book on Amazon. Here is a link to it:

https://www.amazon.com/Daniels-Running-Formula-3rd-Jack/dp/1450431836

I'm sure you could find an online coach, but this book has pretty much all you need. If you want to watch youtube videos about running and how to create your own plan I would recommend Soren Knudsen, Vo2MaxProductions, and Ben Barrows. 4:48 is a decent time so I would probably already know a bit about training. Happy running and good luck!

At this point your training plan should consist of:

Put on running shoes

Go outside

Run for a few miles

Repeat 3-4 times a week for 1-2 months. Assuming all goes well, the you can run 4-5 days a week, and a little bit farther, for a few months. Once you're able to do 20-25 miles per week by running 5-6 days per week, you can start worrying about more ambitious training plans.

Ill get blasted for it but Hal Higdon plans are good for getting back into it again.

His routines usually start you off on easy runs, tempo, intervals, long run, or hills. All key things just add a couple of miles to the runs once you plateau and for interval days of its 8x400 after a while switch it to 4x800.

Weeks 1-8

Just go running. Anything from 5M-15M, strides after your 2-3x week

Weeks 9-12

1 day of hill reps, alternate Long Hills and Short Hills each week, increase mileage by adding 2 AM runs

1 day of Fartlek, so you might net out 6-8M but you'll do 10-12x .60 up .60 down "hard effort"

Weeks 13-15

Keep with the same plan, replace the fartlek day with some 800m reps

Weeks 16-20

drop the hill day, replace with a day of actual speed work. short stuff at very hard effort with a long rest

DON'T TURN THIS INTO AN ENDURANCE DAY.

"When you're a hammer everything looks like a nail." Distance runners always want to turn every workout into a distance day.

Giver yourself an easy w/up and c/down but hit those rep fast and hard.

Go race.

I'll add that you should do at least one 5k per month just to get to where you're feeling out your pace and to be sure you are practicing at the correct paces.

zohan wrote:

Weeks 1-8

Just go running. Anything from 5M-15M, strides after your 2-3x week

The guy hasn't run in years and is overweight. And you are recommending a 15 miler? You're nuts, bro.

OP, just go run easy for 2 months. Do what you can. Make sure it's all at a conversation pace. Realistically you could do runs up to 5 miles or an hour, whichever is less. Take days off to recover. Whatever you do, don't try a 15 mile run.

Trainingplanhelp wrote:

I need help making a training plan for myself as I really really want to get back into running. A couple of years ago I ran track and was able to run a 4:48 1600 and 2:14 800. But I just recently did a road race 5K (and barely broke 23 running a 22:58) and it was then I realized how badly I let myself go. I’ve gained 25 pounds since track ( 5’8 140-165) and I’ve lost a lot of speed and endurance and I was wondering how would I make a training plan or if I could pay a coach to make me a training plan? Because I could honestly only follow a written out plan.

If you're 25 pounds overweight, just start running. Don't worry about a specific plan, try to shed some of that weight and get your body used to running every day again.

Whatttt???? wrote:

zohan wrote:

Weeks 1-8

Just go running. Anything from 5M-15M, strides after your 2-3x week

The guy hasn't run in years and is overweight. And you are recommending a 15 miler? You're nuts, bro.

OP, just go run easy for 2 months. Do what you can. Make sure it's all at a conversation pace. Realistically you could do runs up to 5 miles or an hour, whichever is less. Take days off to recover. Whatever you do, don't try a 15 mile run.

Reading comprehension dude... give it a try.

Try reading that again very very very s l o w l y and you might see where you are wrong in your assertion that I told him to go out and run 15M immediately.

Buy the book:

Run Faster from the 5K to the Marathon: How to Be Your Own Best Coach

It teaches you how to build your own plan.

In case the other Jeff needs more money, click here:

https://www.amazon.com/Run-Faster-5K-Marathon-Coach/dp/0767928229

zohan wrote:

Whatttt???? wrote:

The guy hasn't run in years and is overweight. And you are recommending a 15 miler? You're nuts, bro.

OP, just go run easy for 2 months. Do what you can. Make sure it's all at a conversation pace. Realistically you could do runs up to 5 miles or an hour, whichever is less. Take days off to recover. Whatever you do, don't try a 15 mile run.

Reading comprehension dude... give it a try.

Try reading that again very very very s l o w l y and you might see where you are wrong in your assertion that I told him to go out and run 15M immediately.

It's the part where you wrote, "Just go running. Anything from 5M-15M" without saying anything about when to do 5M or 15M. Actually, even 5 miles is too long for a beginner. If by "5M-15M" you mean 5-15 minutes, that might be more reasonable, but please use standard abbreviations so you won't be misunderstood.

Grammar police running advice wrote:

zohan wrote:

Reading comprehension dude... give it a try.

Try reading that again very very very s l o w l y and you might see where you are wrong in your assertion that I told him to go out and run 15M immediately.

It's the part where you wrote, "Just go running. Anything from 5M-15M" without saying anything about when to do 5M or 15M. Actually, even 5 miles is too long for a beginner. If by "5M-15M" you mean 5-15 minutes, that might be more reasonable, but please use standard abbreviations so you won't be misunderstood.

Lol, this is a typical argument you’d find on Political Facebook posts... Take one small detail of the article/speech/comment, interpret it in the most unrealistic way possible, and then appear to be offended/upset by how blatantly wrong the other person was. A reasonable person would conclude the poster meant 15 Miles would be a potential Long Run at the end of 8 weeks. *Its probabaly still too far but if he’s a durable guy that ran decent mileage before his years off, it’s not totally crazy...besides, in the context of the post, it was the very upper limit of what you could possibly run after 8 weeks... not a command to run 15 Miles.

+1

If you want to get back in shape and don’t have specific goals, running really needs to be enjoyable for you to stick with it. People seem to neglect the enjoyment aspect when writing training.

Simply running, literally any running, is going to help you. But running 3-4 miles easy 4-6 times a week may be very, very boring. (I don’t typically jump out of my bed in excitement to go jog around; but I do get excited for certain workouts/races). So include a lot of easy running.. that’s what you need. But also include running workouts you actually like. If you like to sprint, then Sprint. If you like 400s at around 2 mile pace- do that once a week. Even crazier, your run doesn’t have to be an easy day OR a workout. It could be a little of both to make it more exciting. Ex. 3 easy miles. 3x400, 2x200. 1 easy mile. Now you just made a 5 mile run a little less mind-numbingly boring. Just be creative, have fun, and consistently just get out the door and run something.

If you actually want to be competitive again, you can worry about training details later once you have some decent fitness.

start here wrote:

At this point your training plan should consist of:

Put on running shoes

Go outside

Run for a few miles

Repeat 3-4 times a week for 1-2 months. Assuming all goes well, the you can run 4-5 days a week, and a little bit farther, for a few months. Once you're able to do 20-25 miles per week by running 5-6 days per week, you can start worrying about more ambitious training plans.

This.

(And everyone else is wasting their/your time).

Just build some aerobic endurance.

Just get out, run by feel.

Your paces are going to be slow and you're going to get tired. Then you'll get better. Then you can think about a training plan. Right now your only plan should be to train.

zohan wrote:

Weeks 1-8

Just go running. Anything from 5M-15M, strides after your 2-3x week

Even for a beginner that's too short. Better would be 400M, brief rest, repeat a few times. With yours, the strides would be longer than the run.